Recommendations wanted - Beethoven's 9th

[thebestsound]

I'm a new member who is not a stranger to classical music. I just don't have as much of it as I'd like. This has probably been asked before (apologies), but I'd like to know what other members feel is the most powerful version of Beethovan's Ninth symphony. I don't want something that sounds like it was recorded in a garage. Are you laughing yet ? Good. We'll get along just fine. Thanks in advance.

[Gurn Blanston]

I'm a new member who is not a stranger to classical music. I just don't have as much of it as I'd like. This has probably been asked before (apologies), but I'd like to know what other members feel is the most powerful version of Beethoven's Ninth symphony. I don't want something that sounds like it was recorded in a garage. Are you laughing yet ? Good. We'll get along just fine. Thanks in advance.

TBS,
Welcome to the forum. The only one we laugh at here is me, so no worries!   

Here is a thread with over 700 replies on Beethoven's 9th, maybe one of them will help you out. Performances of the 9th today are trending away from 'Big Band', but in earlier times it was the only way to go. So I would suggest a recording originally made in the 1970's as you best bet for a size/sound quality combination.

http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,12281.0.html

Cheers,
Gurn

[Ken B]

I'm a new member who is not a stranger to classical music. I just don't have as much of it as I'd like. This has probably been asked before (apologies), but I'd like to know what other members feel is the most powerful version of Beethovan's Ninth symphony. I don't want something that sounds like it was recorded in a garage. Are you laughing yet ? Good. We'll get along just fine. Thanks in advance.

There are a lot of them! Depending on how much you want to spend so it might make more sense to buy a box set of all for symphonies. Usually this can be had pretty cheap these days.
You'll get a lot of disagreement on this group, because people have their favorites, and because were all fanatics and fanatics are like that.
Karajan is very good, as is Zinman, Blomstedt, and Cluytens and all these sets are cheap about $20 for the set.
I rate this the best choice for a combination of sound, performance, and price

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But many regulars here will be gasping in horror.

[DavidW]

Harnoncourt and Vanska spring to mind.

[Itullian]

Solti's first analog recording.
Powerful.

[ritter]

Controversial, but IMHO one of the great recordings of the work:

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The last word of a great conductor on a work he was closely associated with...

[Gurn Blanston]

A commendable very modern performance is this one:

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The 9th is also sold separately if you don't want the entire cycle (I know, I have it!).  Sound quality is first rate since it was recorded in 2009 (IIRC).

[North Star]

Harnoncourt and Vanska spring to mind.

Solti's first analog recording.
Powerful.

You two must be twins. 

Lets see how long it takes for all the different recordings to be mentioned.. 
Vänskä certainly has great sound quality and playing.
Herreweghe's Harmonia Mundi recording is a fine period instrument / HIP choice.

[mc ukrneal]

Harnoncourt and Vanska spring to mind.

The Harnoncourt is light weight though. The chorus has a nice sound to it, but the orchestra always seems too light to me.

[Sergeant Rock]

Herreweghe's Harmonia Mundi recording is a fine period instrument / HIP choice.

Herreweghe is one of my favorites too:

Böhm Vienna Philharmonic  Jones/Troyanos/Thomas/Ridderbusch
Mackerras Royal Liverpool Philharmonic  Rodgers/Jones/Bronder/Terfel
Norrington London Classical Players  Kenny/Walker/Power/Salomaa
Celibidache Munich Philharmonic  Donath/Soffel/Jerusalem/Lika
Herreweghe La Chapelle Royale  Denier/Lang/Wottiech/Henschel

Sarge

[Marc]

If you buy this box, then you'll get top notch performances of all symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner plus some bonus stuff of Bach and Mozart, conducted by the underrated but quite sublime conductor Eugen Jochum.



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[Marc]

And if you only want the 9th:



http://www.amazon.com/Beethoven-Symphony-Netherland-Radio-Chorus/dp/B00000E3VY/

[Holden]

This is the best, given your criteria. It's also my all time favourite

[liuzerus87]

This is the best, given your criteria. It's also my all time favourite

The Fricsay is a favorite of mine as well.

The most powerful for me is still Furtwangler's 1942, but if somebody could get that one to sound like it was recorded in a garage, it'd be an improvement over current!

[Cosi bel do]

Given the criteria I'd say Abbado & Berlin in Salzbourg (Sony). But this topic is starting to look like exactly the contrary of a recommendation

[Dancing Divertimentian]

The most powerful for me is still Furtwangler's 1942, but if somebody could get that one to sound like it was recorded in a garage, it'd be an improvement over current!

[Lisztianwagner]

I would strongly recommend these ones:

About the Karajan, I personally prefer the 1963 recording included in the DG set, but I don't know if it is available in a single disc.

[thebestsound]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great suggestions. I ended up buying a good used CD ( Böhm - Vienna Philharmonic ) from Amazon. I could hear some reverberation from the hall and I liked that. Price was an unbearable $6.00 :-)).  I might buy a different version later, by another orchestra / conductor since they're so reasonable. One problem is that there isn't always a sample to listen to. What's next on the list ? A thunderous rendition of Night on Bare / Bald Mountain. Hang on. My tastes ARE wider than that. I also like baroque trumpet music. I have a boxed set called Masters of the Baroque. Mozart is cool. In a nutshell: Classical sounds like REAL music. More to type but have some work to do. Probably best to put this stuff in my profile.....like The Ohio Express bubble gum music. LOL or roll your eyes.

Who did write Bach's Brandenburg concertos ? Vaughn Williams right ? 

[Ken B]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great suggestions. I ended up buying a good used CD ( Böhm - Vienna Philharmonic ) from Amazon. I could hear some reverberation from the hall and I liked that. Price was an unbearable $6.00 :-)).  I might buy a different version later, by another orchestra / conductor since they're so reasonable. One problem is that there isn't always a sample to listen to. What's next on the list ? A thunderous rendition of Night on Bare / Bald Mountain. Hang on. My tastes ARE wider than that. I also like baroque trumpet music. I have a boxed set called Masters of the Baroque. Mozart is cool. In a nutshell: Classical sounds like REAL music. More to type but have some work to do. Probably best to put this stuff in my profile.....like The Ohio Express bubble gum music. LOL or roll your eyes.

Who did write Bach's Brandenburg concertos ? Vaughn Williams right ? 

There is a lot cheap now too. You might want to think about one of the big boxes of recordings from a particular label. The Living Stereo box is cheap at some places these days. The Decca Sound is great. These cover a wide range of music without ever getting too obscure.

[North Star]

Just wanted to say thanks for all the great suggestions. I ended up buying a good used CD ( Böhm - Vienna Philharmonic ) from Amazon. I could hear some reverberation from the hall and I liked that. Price was an unbearable $6.00 :-)).  I might buy a different version later, by another orchestra / conductor since they're so reasonable. One problem is that there isn't always a sample to listen to. What's next on the list ? A thunderous rendition of Night on Bare / Bald Mountain.

Abbado!

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